Twinkies never enticed me much, but cover them in gold metallic powder and I'm sold! Kind of. Each gold-covered, espresso or buttercream-filled organic chocolate cake made by baker Sara Magid is $6 a piece at Brooklyn-based boutique Jan and Aya, so it won't completely gouge your wallet to try at least one.
Does gold make the cake taste any better? I'm going to assume that my taste buds wouldn't care—but hey, it's shiny! [via Gothamist and Brooklyn Based]
If you've never had a Portuguese egg tart before, you're missing out on some sweet, custardy deliciousness. Aiyah spotted these trays of Portuguese egg tarts while in Hong Kong. She describes them as, "incredibly light, creamy, warm and sinful." Count me in for a tray...or two.
"Florida has the key lime pie, Massachusetts has the Boston cream pie and, hopefully, Maryland will have the Smith Island Cake": The iconic multi-layered cake made of flour, butter, eggs and chocolate could soon become Maryland's official dessert. Originally brought over by the settlers who came to Smith Island in the 17th century, the cake originally consisted of four layers but has gradually grown in size to around eight or 10 layers, with filling variations depending on who you got your recipe from. The Maryland Senate voted 44-1 in favor of the cake – all that's left now is approval from the House... [photo via On the Record]
D.C.-based chef Michel Richard, whose "virtual egg" made from yellow tomato (yolk) and mozzarella (white), has nothing on this bowl of "noodles" (right). The broth is actually a caramel mixture, the noodles are pudding, and the toppings are chocolates and such. If you wanna get your hands on one, you either have to live in or travel to Japan, of course, where they're available from IchiMonji. [via CScout Japan]
I wouldn't put cheesecake on my list of "Most Favorite Desserts," but when I saw Fanny's very vanilla cheesecake (cheesecake très vanille) on her blog Foodbeam, I got a craving. It doesn't help that Fanny's beautiful photos make me look at my own food and want to cry. After reading her description of the cake, I wanted to cry some more: "rich and thick yet feathery," "fragrant with vanilla," atop a milk chocolate crust with a "pleasing buttery aftertaste." Recreate the deliciousness in your home by following her recipe. I'll just continue to oogle her photos.
Previously
Step into the Sweetest Kitchen in Paris
Cook the Book: Honey-Vanilla Cheesecake
Cheesecakes Gone Wild
Junior's Apple Caramel Cheesecake
While jiggling cubes of Jell-O don't usually catch my attention or make my mouth water, the rainbow Jell-O from Do Better triggered the part of my brain that squeals, "Ooh, pretty colors!" It looks more like clear, colored glass than the bouncy dessert found in Chinese buffets across the nation. [via TasteSpotting]
The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read her past market missions here.
I’ve been craving these jellies for ages and went hunting for them this weekend, certain that with globe-trotting food trends, I’d find them sitting pretty next to the Taiwanese bubble tea hut, or the Korean fro-yo stand. But several jelly-less hours later, I was forced to concede that not only are these jellies nowhere near as popular as they are in Asia, they aren’t available at all! What gives?
Konnyaku jellies are a wobbly, vegan treat made from the starchy root of the konjac plant, a yamlike tuber that’s also called devil's tongue, voodoo lily, snake palm, or elephant yam. When flavored with hijiki seaweed and sans sugar, konnyaku plays a laudable role in Japanese hotpots or oden.
Eater is reporting a dessert truck showdown tonight outside New York's Whitney Museum for the opening of the Whitney Biennial, where both the Treats Truck and DessertTruck will be on site from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
So who will emerge victorious? The Treats Truck might have the upper hand in terms of recognition thanks to its ever-changing location all throughout New York City, whereas the Dessert Truck remains at 8th Street and University Place near NYU, but it does offer up some stiff competition with its wallet-friendly gourmet desserts like molten chocolate cake or its bombolonis. And let's not forget that both trucks are vying for Best Mobile Food in Time Out NY's Eat Out 2008 Awards.
Gelato from Otto
Recently, I had a great meal at Salt in the West Village. Even better than my wild salmon and braised fennel entrée was my dessert: upside-down pear cake with a scoop of homemade rosemary ice cream. It was fragrant, herbaceous, and creamy, with only a slight hint of sugar.
Dishes that blur the line between sweet and savory are all the rage in New York right now, from Tailor's black olive clafoutis to P*ong’s stilton soufflé. Mario Batiali's Otto serves an olive oil gelato that is simply out of this world. It’s got me thinking: how long before savory ice cream flavors hit supermarket shelves?
Tokyo-based design magazine PingMag has a feature on the history and making of the Japanese snack cake ningyo-yaki, which translates to "fried dolls." These small cakes made by pouring batter into intricate molds—varying from Hello Kitty to a traditional lantern—are typically filled with red bean paste, but may also be filled with chocolate or custard. Grab a box on your next trip to Japan!
In Forbes Traveler's list of the world's most expensive desserts, Strawberries Arnaud tops the list and almost a million and a half bucks.
Hannah Kaminsky of BitterSweet didn't intend to make doughnut sandwiches filled with maple frosting, but when her homemade baked doughnuts came out flat-topped, it was the only way to salvage the fat doughnut bottoms. Some of the best ideas come out of mistakes! [via tastespotting]
Previously: How to Eat Cupcakes—sandwich the frosting between the cake!
Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so with the next two Cook the Book selections we will concern ourselves with sweets appropriate for the occasion. The first of our cookbooks for exploration is Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holidays: Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season
The first of these will be along in a few minutes, but first, we'd like to let you know you can win a copy of this book. All you have to do is answer in the comments below: How do you indulge in chocolate? Hot cocoa? Chocolate cake? A rich and creamy pudding? Chocolate bars?
Winners will be chosen at random from among the commenters, and comments will be open until noon ET, Monday, February 11. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Craving a cup of of Indonesian Vanilla Ice Cream & American Sturgeon caviar? How about “Chantilly” of milk chocolate with Earl Grey sorbet and grapefruit segments? These were some of the desserts Tina Wong ate at the Dessert Studio in New York City, the chocolate shop and dessert bar featuring creations by innovative pastry chef Will Goldfarb.
Serendipity 3, the kitschy upscale soda fountain–restaurant frequented by celebrities, debutantes, and tourists, announced today the creation of the world's most expensive dessert, the $25,000 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate. It's crowned by the world's most expensive piece of chocolate, the $250 La Madeline au Truffe, made with a whole Perigord black truffle and truffle oil. For $25,000, shouldn't Serendipity throw in some shaved white truffle as well? And shouldn't they donate half the proceeds to some worthwhile food charity?
For a take on pumpkin pie that's cuter than the traditional crusted version, try filling baby pumpkins with pumpkin pie filling. Lara Ferroni shares the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin accompanied by her beautiful photos on her food blog, Cook & Eat.
Conventional wisdom in the food world is that desserts in Italian restaurants are an afterthought. All I can say is that the people spouting that conventional wisdom have never had Gina DePalma's desserts at Babbo in New York City. I have had the privilege of eating DePalma's desserts since the restaurant opened. I have over the years sampled every dessert on the menu at least once, and I can tell you there isn't a loser in the bunch. Now that DePalma has written Dolce Italiano: Desserts From the Babbo Kitchen
As you may have guessed, Dolce Italiano is this week's featured Cook the Book entry. Like all Cook the Books, we have five (5) copies to give away. Just tell us what your favorite Italian sweet is.
Five winners will be chosen at random from among the comments. You have until 3 p.m. ET Saturday, November 10, to comment. The standard contest rules apply.
Everyone is always yapping about frozen custard. St. Louis residents and expats swear by Ted Drewes (the inspiration at least for Danny Meyer's Shake Shack in New York. Milwaukeeans sing the praises of Leon's and Kopp's, and their neighbors to the west in Madison love their Michael's. Indianians go crazy over Culver's, and New Yorkers wait in line at Shake Shack for an hour for their burgers and custard (custard freaks like us know to hit the always short B-line at Shake Shack, which is for drinks and custard only).
So in this era of Fed-Exed everything, we decided to gather as many of the above-mentioned frozen custards and do the ultimate frozen custard taste test.
When the weather’s sweltering and you’ve got beads—no, rivulets—of perspiration trickling down your limbs and the sun dazzles so you could almost swear the air is shimmering, most people lose their appetite for "real food." They slurp ice pops, dive into bowls of ice cream, down milk shakes, attend fro-yo socials, stick their heads in refrigerators when the environmental police are not looking, and plot escapes to air-conditioned havens.
Here in Southeast Asia, where the weather’s like that, oh, pretty much all the time, and where women are commonly seen drawing lines through their food before digging in (dieters generally eat half a portion of what’s already half to a third of an average American serving), such calorie bombs are a no-no, but dessert still comes first ;)
Dorie Greenspan might know what I'm talking about—otherwise I don't think she would've written Baking: From My Home to Yours
This week we are giving away ten (10) copies of the book. For a chance to win, let us know what your favorite type of cookie is in the comments section until 9 p.m. ET Friday. The usual Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Holly of Raspberry Debacle should win an award in the category of "Important Contributions to the World of Desserts" for her detailed and lovingly hand-drawn Sketch Toward a Taxonomy of Desserts and Meta-Desserts. The chart illustrates what you get when you combine two dessertoms—the metaphorical atoms of dessert—such as as crepe with fruit (fruit crepe), pastry with cream (eclair), or cream with cream (loads of cream). The bottom of the chart also lists several vital dessert functions, such as chilling, heating, and processing. If the chart weren't efficient enough, Holly has devised a shorthand system for referring to the combinations of the dessertoms and functions. For instance, instead of saying, "A trifle is a mixture of fruit, cream, custard, cake, and alcohol that is then chilled," you should write:
Chill(Add Alcohol(Cake(Custard(Cream(Fruit))))) -> Trifle
Read more about the chart's functions and rules of dessertom combination at Raspberry Debacle and view it in all its glory at Holly's flickr. I would proudly hang a copy of this chart in my kitchen. Or, better yet, wallpaper my room with many, many charts.
Karina Kappel, who has a degree in scientific illustration, put her knowledge to work creating anatomically accurate cookies that depict butterflies, bees, and ladybugs. She's $5,000 richer as a result, after winning a contest run by dessert-decorating supplier Wilton.
Photograph from wilton.com
Lynn of To Short Term Memories made these lovely macarons for herself after teaching a cooking class. One's filled with dulce de leche and the other with kaya, a rich, creamy jam made with coconut milk, eggs and pandan leaf most popular in Singapore and Malaysia and usually served spread on toast. I do not know how I will continue to exist in the world today knowing I cannot have these in my mouth!
The photo from TeamSugar's recipe for molten chocolate cakes with fresh whipped cream is killing me; the recipe itself, not so much. I do love the teeny little wax paper cups haze1nut chose to bake the cakes in, they're a great idea and I wouldn't mind it if they caught on—but if you're going to make molten chocolate cakes why not use the original recipe from Jean-Georges Vongerichten himself?
(If you're not feeling JGV, Chowhound bakers pointed to their favorite recipes on Epicurious a few months ago, they all sound just as delicious.)
As part of their ongoing Southern Recipe Restoration Project, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently asked its readers to send in their family custard recipes. Chef Anne Quatrano chose a recipe sent in by Peter Gordy, an Atlanta marketing consultant from Toadsuck, Arkansas; here's the story behind Mabel's Boiled Custard That Isn't Boiled:
For as long as I can remember, a woman named Mabel worked for my Aunt Eula [Dunaway], one of those great Southern ladies you never saw in pants and [who] always wore a big hat whenever she worked in the garden.
Mabel had no trouble disciplining my cousin Nancy, who lived across the street, or any of us that played on the block. But if we were good and didn't wake Aunt Eula during her afternoon nap, Mabel would make us kids boiled custard. She said her grandmother taught her how to make it. The custard was never boiled, and she served it cold over sliced bananas. And always with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Heaven in a bowl.
I didn't grow up eating custard, boiled or otherwise, but boy do I love it now—my custard delivery method of choice is banana pudding, but really a good custard is delicious no matter how you eat it or what you eat it with.
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
Andrew Plotkin's Periodic Table of Desserts provides a clean, scientific look at everyone's favorite food group: "Things Primarily Made of Fat and Sugar". He goes beyond the basic table encompassing all your favorite sugars, fats, fruits, nuts and spices by including the pseudo-molecular structures of basic desserts and baked goods and providing a thermal spectrum of sugary treats. The print version of this "Scientific and Rigorous approach to patisserie—in Full Color" would be perfect in any dessert nerd's kitchen.
Love or hate McDonald's, you have to admit they usually do a good job of integrating local specialties into their menus. McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii have lots of custom items on their menus—the breakfast menu alone has two dishes with SPAM: a SPAM McGriddle and SPAM served with eggs and rice—and they frequently get limited edition delights too. Pomai of Honolulu food blog The Tasty Island recently tried the current offering, the Haupia Pie: "Similar to their familiar Apple Pie, this item uses the same crust and turnover shape, except with this, it has a filling intended to (loosely) replicate the traditional Haupia dessert offered at a Hawaiian Luau. Upon first bite, you ‘ll notice the light, golden crispy texture and mild salty flavor of the crust compliments the sweet, creamy coconut-flavored filling quite nicely."
"We are intrepid cake tourists, travelling the globe in search of amazing cake. Aghast at the lack of cake information in tour guides we will tell you the reader where to go for the best cake, wherever you are in the world. Obviously this may take some time but we're willing to do what it takes: eating lots of cake." The Cake Tourism blog, where the cake lovers of the world unite!
[via justhungry del.icio.us]
Yesterday we discussed how buying from online bakeshops is a leap of faith, one that I don't think I'm cut out for. Well, if you're ready to make that leap you might as well make it deluxe and order a $100 Ultimate Coconut Cake from Charleston's Peninsula Grill. The cake serves 16 people and weighs 12 pounds—shipping isn't included in the price and will run you a whopping $34 to $60 extra.
Kelly DiNardo in the Washington Post today, on the troubles of selling cupcakes online: "There are challenges besides shipping logistics and growing a business too quickly. Getting customers to make the leap of faith about buying an item they haven't seen or smelled might be the biggest hurdle for an online bakery. In fact, Forrester Research found that the main reason people don't like to shop for food online is that they like to see or touch food items before they buy them (the report didn't mention taste)."
Except for having groceries delivered by FreshDirect, which delivers my purchases to my front door in their own truck instead of through the mail, I don't really buy food online without personal recommendations because I like to know what I'll be getting—I have Photoshop so I know photos can lie, and I've read enough press releases and website testimonials to not trust they won't be hyperbole. The only pastry I can imagine ordering online without having tried it first is a King Cake, since they're specific to both New Orleans and the Mardi Gras season, but good cupcakes, cookies and cakes seem easy enough to find in person. Have you ever bought baked goods online? Would you ever?
Candy Sagon in the Washington Post, on how we've neglected butterscotch in recent years:
[Shuna Fish] Lydon says butterscotch has fallen out of favor because most people today associate it with "those awful chips" or the artificial flavor of instant pudding. "Even really famous San Francisco pastry chefs aren't making homemade butterscotch" when they do serve butterscotch-flavored desserts, [s]he wrote in an e-mail. "They're using the chips and/or adding Scotch, both of which are very, very wrong."
Cookbook author Diana Dalsass thinks it has to do with the fact that the name includes the word "butter." "It's still such a taboo because of our obsession with dieting," says Dalsass, who bucked the trend in 2001 with "The Butterscotch Lover's Cookbook" (Buttercup Press), a slim volume of dessert recipes plus a list of places where you can order butterscotch treats.
The article includes three butterscotch recipes: butterscotch cookies, easy butterscotch sauce, and fudgy butterscotch icing; if it's pudding you want, Shuna posted a recipe for butterscotch pudding in December.
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